


LIttle Miracles For Ordinary People

by Pen37



Series: The Actual Human Disaster, Hufflepuff, Adventure Archaeologist and the Missing Brother [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, GNU Terry Pratchett, Mentions of Real World Events, Reader as main character, Specifically the death of Terry Pratchett, This is basically a fic in which the author is still not over the death of her own favorite author, Tumblr Fic, because discworld is awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 13:59:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18345092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pen37/pseuds/Pen37
Summary: Even Wizards can get emotional about Wizzards.Or: Charlie knows that Bill looks at MC as a surrogate sister.  Even if he doesn’t know her that well, he figures he should step in when she’s being bullied. Sometimes you don't know when you're at the start of something amazing.





	LIttle Miracles For Ordinary People

1986

Charlie frowns as he observes you reading at the Hufflepuff table. You’re so engrossed in your book, you haven’t noticed that the sleeve of your robes is trailing in your soup.

Or that Merula and Ismelda have charmed paper birds to fly into your hair. One is even stuck behind your ear. Carelessly, you brush it away, before flicking to the next page.

Charlie scans the hall for any of your circle. But he doesn’t see Rowan or Ben anywhere. With a sigh, he picks up his own food and slides into the spot across from you. Bill thinks of you like another sister, so Charlie figures he ought to look after you.

The two of you don’t know one another well, but at least he can keep Merula and her bunch from bullying you, since you seem too busy to care.

As you haven’t looked up from the page, he squints at the book’s title. “The Colour Of Magic?” He asks. “Did Flitwick assign that?”

You glance up for the first time. “No, it’s a muggle book my mum sent. She thought I might like it. You know, considering.” Your wave encompasses the great hall. “Witch and all.”

“What’s it about?” Charlie asked.

“A rubbish wizard who lives on a flat world. It’s held up by elephants who stand on a giant sea turtle that flies through space.”

Charlie blinks while processing that. “That sounds utterly mad.”

“It is, a bit.” You smile in a self deprecating way. “I like it though. It’s quite funny.”

Another paper bird dive bombs your head, but Charlie snatches it out of the air before it reaches you. He glares at Merula.

“You want to get out of here?” He asks. “I’d like to hear more, and it’s a bit noisy.”

You tuck a flapping paper bird into your book as a bookmark, and smile at him. “Alright.” The two of you walk out of the great hall, shoulders brushing.

—

2015

When Charlie finishes his shift and returns to his tent, you’re wearing one of his old sweaters and hugging a pristine copy of The Shepherd’s Crown to your chest.

“He’s gone.” Your eyes swim with tears.

Charlie nods. You’d told him how your favorite muggle writer’s health was declining. He pulls out a blanket, and spoons in next to you. “Is that his last book, then?”

“I haven’t wanted to read it,” you say. “If I never read it, there will always be one more book to look forward to.”

“From what I know of this bloke, it sounds like he would have hated that.” Charlie kisses your temple. “Books are meant to be read, Luv.”

“Can I read to you?” You ask him.

“Please,” Charlie nods. “I’d like that.”

You sit up, and he rests his head in your lap. You stroke his tangled, wild red hair as you read words of loss and acceptance and moving on.

And Charlie thinks wistfully of Fred, and Tonks. Of what Harry’s told him of a train platform and Dumbledore. He wonders if the muggle writer was really a wizard (or even a wizzard). Because the books had fire and anger and hard truth softened with humor. And that is a type of magic in itself.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: My personal head canon is that since the Potter books haven’t been released in the Potterverse, everyone read the Discworld books instead.
> 
> In the muggle world of the Potterverse, everyone wants to go to Orlando and see Discworld at Universal Studios, where they’ll tour the Unseen University, have their photo made with The Luggage, and sample a Sausage inna Bun From Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler.
> 
> Instead of a dragon breathing fire, every half-hour, the B.S. (Bloody Stupid) Johnson organ goes off. Sometimes it makes the tower it’s housed in explode, just for effect.
> 
> The Color Of Magic was released in 1983, and The Shepherd’s crown came out in 2015, a few months after Pratchett’s passing. So MC grew up on these books.
> 
> The title comes from a line in The Shepherd’s crown:
> 
> PRAY TELL ME, WHY WERE YOU CONTENT TO LIVE IN THIS TINY LITTLE COUNTRY WHEN, AS YOU KNOW, YOU COULD HAVE BEEN ANYTHING AND ANYBODY IN THE WORLD?
> 
> “I don’t know about the world, not much; but in my part of the world I could make little miracles for ordinary people,” Granny replied sharply. “And I never wanted the world—just a part of it, a small part that I could keep safe”


End file.
